Edible, medicinal, and native plants for the Pacific Northwest
We spent 13 years building an abundant fruit forest, annual veggie beds, perennial medicinal herbs, and a healthy mixed hardwood-coniferous forest and now we’ve sold our property to the next stewards so that we can begin a new homesteading project in Vermont closer to our best friends and their kids.
Don’t worry - we plan to keep this website up and running so that our customers can reference what we’ve written about our plants!
We’ll let you know once we re-start a farm in Vermont!
Gooseberry
Gooseberries are a great choice for small fruits in the Pacific Northwest. They thrive in sun or dappled shade and handle soil conditions all the way from heavy clay to sandy loam. They grow to about 4 feet tall and wide, sometimes larger, but respond well to pruning. We like to plant them in between fruit trees in an orchard or forest garden, as they feed pollinators early in the season, resist deer browsing due to their spines, and fruit well in the shade even after the taller trees mature.
The fruit ripens early to mid-summer. They are larger and sweeter than currants, with a range of color when ripe that includes grassy green, yellow-green, gold, rosy pink, cherry red, and dark purple.
This prickly and upright gooseberry shrub is native to California and Oregon. It produces profusions of intricate red and white flowers that look like they are turned inside out. If you are looking for huge yields of berries, however, I recommend a European gooseberry instead. Read more
‘Hinnomaki Gold’ also known as ‘Hinnomaki Yellow” is a very hardy variety, and bushes produce a heavy crop of medium sized, greenish yellow fruits. Some say this variety has a delicious aromatic flavour with a hint of apricot. Read more
‘Invicta’ produces high yields of large dessert quality green fruit, and is considered by many to be the best variety in North America. It has excellent flavor, is mildew resistant, and is more spiny than some varieties, which is better for deer resistance. Read more
Pixwell is almost thornless. Berries can be harvested when green for pie and jam or harvested when soft and pink for fresh eating. Very productive and fruit is easy to harvest clusters. Mildew resistant and has beautiful purple foliage in autumn. Read more
Sabine is a variety we originally obtained from the USDA Germplasm Repository in Corvallis Oregon. This vigorous and disease resistant plant has a medium sized red berry. Read more
Waldo is a purple gooseberry originally brought to us by Rick Valley, a wise local Permaculture landscaper. It was the result of hybridizations from Dr. George Waldo. It has sweet purple fruits and grows vigorously. Read more
A favorite gooseberry here at Fern Hill, ‘Jahn’s Prairie’ produces hearty yields of large dessert quality red-pink fruit in midsummer. This shrub grows more upright than some gooseberry varietes. Easy to grow in our climate, it is rsistant to rust, powdery mildew, leaf spot, grey mold, stem botrytis, aphids and saw flies. Read more
